Too Short to Close Prius Rear Hatch / Trunk

This wonderful site has user guides for Gen I and Gen II, the Gen II guide has hints on lowering the hatch on page 45 that may also apply to Gen III.

John's Stuff - Toyota Prius User-Guide

 

Can she reach the "hook" part? If you can reach that, then you can pull that down to get the hatch low enough to push it all the way in.

One of the mods I will eventually be working on is putting a Lexus hatch controller on the Prius for automatic hatch open/close. The RX we have looks the same to the Prius, so it should not be too difficult.

 

This was a common problem with SUVs. I've seen people attach a rope pull to the inside of the hatch. You could do the same with the Prius.

Tom

 

i hope your mother like the car!

 

good idea, and it also helps when in a low ceiling garage or when backing out with the hatch open.

 

Is she even grabbing the handle on the inside or is she trying to close the trunk by reaching it?

 

If she were my Mother I would get her a cane...put a rubber chair cushion...that goes on a chair leg...put this on the handle of the cane. Stow it in the back of her Prius...she could use this to reach up and pull down the back door.

 

If she can reach pne of the inside handles handle or use one of the methods mentioned to pull the hatch down a bit, she can finish closing the car by pushing on the Toyota emblem. It's an amazing leverage point; you push it only slightly and the hatch closes very firmly.

 

I'm surprised nobodys mentioned this...COILOVERS!! (or lowering springs)

It's stylish and practical! Let mom be gangsta'!

 

Slightly off topic, but if mom is so short, how close does she have to sit to the steering wheel (airbag) to reach the floor pedals? Now that can't be safe!

She may need boosters on the brake and accelerator pedals to keep her further back from the steering wheel.

Happy Motoring,

Tom

 

Actually I believe you can get the airbag disabled for such cases. Since she is so small ( I assume she isnt wide nor fat) she does not have as much inertia to stop in an accident. Being so close to the steering wheel, if the airbag deploys it could crush her. It is a safety issue.

My parents have a Toyota Sienna and the rear hatch has a pull loop made of nylon webbing. It comes stock on their Sienna. Perhaps you can have something similarly installed.

 

My sister in law has the same problem. She did no research before buying the car. The dealership promised to install some kind of latch pull for her. But of course they lied to get the sale. So right now she don't open the hatch because she can't reach to close it. (not to mention she has never linked her phone because she dosen't know how.) In any event, I found that there is no place on the inside of the hatch to attach anything, no where you can hook something like a rope onto. There is no pull loop. So some kind of latch pull has to be drilled to be attached.

Would greatly appreciate it if someone has a real solution, not just some speculation. Thanks.

 

what do you mean by a real solution?

people have added bungees to keep the hatch from going all the way up, screwed a hand pull onto the inside, used a simple hook stowed in the hatch to grab the hand pull, even changed the struts to shorter versions
one gal kept a kids 6" step stool in the back

 

I took my 2019 Prius Prime into the dealer today for this very issue. They said there was no way this problem could be fixed. There is also no way to attach anything to the inside of the trunk. They did suggest, however, that I keep a step stool in the car and use it when I need to open the truck. Seriously????

 

Nonsense! Maybe no easy way they could think of off-hand. Several solutions were suggested in this thread. Attaching a strap shouldn't be difficult.

The opposite problem, which Toyota's Matrix had, is a hatch that won't open high enough, with the result that moderately tall people bang their head on it.

 

Is that possible?? Wow! That would be a great mod!

 

we won't know until someone does it, but almost anything is possible

 

take it to a local mech, dealers are useless unless you have trouble lights

 

Yes, or a local body shop would be at least as qualified to find a suitable place to attach a pull strap, if you can't do it yourself.